Tuesday, October 23, 2018

This year, the Los Angeles Dodgers face the Boston Red Sox, a strongly-favored team with a gargantuan payroll who cruised through the regular season and first two rounds of the playoffs, backed by strong starting pitching. Sound familiar?

Barring any potential racist gestures in the impending playoff series, it's admittedly difficult to dislike the Red Sox, and nigh impossible to hate on Boston manager and former Dodger Alex Cora. Dodger manager Dave Roberts continues to be friends with Cora, as they were teammates in Los Angeles in 2004, and Roberts was the one of the first to congratulate Cora on his marathon 18-pitch AB in May 2004 (you can read the definitive story of Cora's marathon 18-pitch AB here).

This is the first World Series managed by two players who each played for both teams. And this is the first World Series helmed by two minority managers. This is pretty cool stuff, set before the context of two historic franchises.

But let's face it, the underdog Dodgers should be the one the baseball gods (if there are any) prefer. While Boston has rattled off three titles since 2004, you may have heard that the Dodgers have been without a championship since 1988.

But we've got momentum. Our Game 7 NLCS victory over the Brewers (on the road!) was thrilling, as we saw some dormant bats awaken (Yasiel Puig, Cody Bellinger), some young stars shine (Walker Buehler, Julio Urias), some veterans show poise (Kenley Jansen, Justin Turner, Clayton Kershaw), and some unsung heroes astonish (Chris Taylor). Oh, and we've got this guy, too, who will both confound and surprise (like with a bunt single that led to an unrelinquished lead). We've got a full head of steam here.

It's time for us to capture some of that October magic.

It's time for us to grab this narrative.

It's time for us to rise up.

LET'S GO, DODGERS.

So grab your drum set, set it up in the back of your pickup truck, and let's take a ride down the street at 5mph.

Putting Yaz in reminded me of the time Mr Burns gave an important task to Homer. When Smithers runs down the dozens of ways Homer almost destroyed the plant, Burns simply replies "I figured he was due"